Ghostbusters 3 Act II
by kennessy
Summary: The second of three parts to my ghostbusters 3 outline


Act II

Act II

After the Ghostbusters run into the building, a montage begins. Interspersed shots of the Ghostbusters busting different ghosts around the city are shown. Patrick and Egon are seen working on new proton packs and ghost traps, with Patrick testing them out while Egon works on another piece of equipment. Newspaper and magazine front pages and covers are shown, announcing the "return of the Ghostbusters," and showing comparisons of the Ghostbusters and the Better Busters. Among these are front pages that include pictures of Carlos and Louis, with headlines like "The New Face of The Ghostbusters?" Egon and Patrick introduce and teach the guys how to use the new proton packs and ghost traps, and everyone seems accepting of the new hardware. The Better Busters are shown questioning Richard about the taxi and the Ghostbusters, with him being clueless the whole time. Oscar encourages Dana and Janine to get out and take some time away from the firehouse, and he uses this freedom to call a repairman, followed by a car painter. These actions bring the Ecto-1 back into commission and official make the taxi part of the team. Oscar keeps his involvement a secret though. With the additional vehicle available for use, Patrick is awarded with a jumpsuit and pack of his own, making the group large enough to split into two teams of Ghostbusters: Ray and Carlos in the taxi, and Winston, Louis, and Patrick in the Ecto-1. Egon remains as a researcher and developer, working on the communication machine for Peter and his other project as well. In an "Around Town" shot, Patrick catches a glimpse of Julie at her vendor stand. She smiles sweetly at him and is visibly impressed at the changes he's undergone. He awkwardly smiles back at her. In the final shot of the montage, the Ecto-1 is driving by the comic book shop. It is completely empty and dark inside. Patrick stares out the window and is puzzled as to why it is still like that.

The Better Busters headquarters is shown next for the first time. Richard is being questioned, and has been for days. Peck is finally realizing that Patrick is the brother he wanted to get, but for some reason believes that Richard may still be worth something to him. Patrick has given up the information that he knows about the taxi, which isn't much as he only saw the car when it was acting normal.

Peck is furious at this, "Look, I don't care about that taxi anymore, okay? I just want to know more about the Ghostbusters. They've ruined me once, I will not let it happen again. I've gotten too far with this ghost recycling business."

Richard looks sideways at him, "What? You guys aren't 'busters?'"

"Heh, hm. Well actually, it's pretty ingenious really," Peck pompously smiles. "Once we catch our ghost, we send them right back to hell." Richard scrunches his face at this. "Unlike the Ghostbusters, who hold on to their ghosts, and ruin opportunities for future business," Peck snarls.

Richard pauses in confusion "Uhhh, I'm pretty sure that people die all the time," he says slowly.

"Enough!" Peck jumps up. He bends over and gets in Richard's face, "Your brother has been in contact with the Ghostbusters for a long time now, what are their plans?"

"Plans?!" Richard laughs. "My brother would call them to tell them the last thing someone bought from the store. They never planned anything. Hah hah, you are screwed man."

Peck buries his face in his hands and gives a big sigh. A man in a lab coat (Anthony Hopkins) enters the room. "Sir, another one is about to happen, we'll be getting the call soon," he tells Peck.

Peck looks up to him, and says in a frustrated manner, "Thank you, Harold, I'll be ready in a moment." He stands up, "We'll continue this later." Peck turns and walks into the next room. Richard leans and peeks around the corner to see Peck and Harold in the next room. They are standing next to a very large machine that looks reminiscent of the containment unit. There are hazard signs all over it and one big button that is covered in glass and surrounded by various "do not touch" signs. Harold and Peck are looking at a map of New York City that is at the top of the machine. Richard cannot hear anything but mumbles, as Harold points to a spot on the map that is lighting up.

Peck nods at this and loudly states, "Alright everyone, we've only got two minutes before the calls start coming in. Let's get as much of a head start as we can on the Ghostbusters!"

"BEFORE the call comes in?" Richard quietly says to himself in a very confused tone. The Better Busters shuffle their way into the Hummer and it peels out of the building.

At the same moment, the taxi is peeling out of the firehouse garage. Janine waves goodbye and closes the door with the push of a button. She is on the phone, talking with Dana.

Egon is in his office tinkering with his new ideas. One of the things he's working on looks a little bit like a big proton wand, but it is obscured from view.

Janine looks up from the phone as the garage doors open to the Ecto-1 pulling in. Once stopped, the three men get out. "Egon!" Winston Yells. "We are definitely going to need some help putting these ghosts away." He and Louis are helpless standing next to the trunk holding the new ghost traps. Patrick comes around to the back of the car to help them bring everything to the containment unit where Egon meets them.

Janine is upstairs talking with a customer. "Yes, sir, we have sent people off in that direction already. Sure, they're in the possessed car. Well, they're going as fast as they can, sir. No, the car doesn't fly. Goodbye, sir," Janine hangs up the phone and sighs. She then picks it up again and dials. "Hey Dana, how's the move going?"

Dana, on the other end of the line, is propping the phone up against her ear with her shoulder while carrying a box full of things around her house. "Oh, hi Janine. The move is going alright. I've got Oscar here to help with everything." Oscar walks by her, huffing and puffing at all the work he has to do. She sternly looks at him while talking to Janine, "No, he did not have to get a summer job this year. It just makes things easier for us."

"One good thing that came from my fake-father fake-dying. Heh," Oscar says as he comes back by her. Dana looks at him in disappointment.

"Anyway, I've been wondering: how is Egon's little talking device coming along?" Dana asks, redirecting her attention to the phone.

Janine hears the question and her eyes widen. She turns around to the guys, who are just coming back up from the containment unit. She gets up and hands the phone to Egon, stating, "She wants to know your progress."

Egon takes the phone and nods, "Hey Dana. I believe we're just about done with it. You can come by later, I'll be installin- uh, attach- um, we'll give it to Peter. Alright, see you then." Egon hands the phone back to Janine and summons the guys back into his office. "Speaking of new things for the taxi- uh, Peter," he says when they get back into his office. "I've been working on stuff besides the communication device."

"It's those wings right?" Winston states. "I mean the guy's a ghost, he should be able to fly around, you know? Plus, we'd be the only team in town if we could fly over traffic and get to every bust first." Louis nods in agreement.

Egon looks at Winston. "Yes, those are very, uh, valid points Winston. Unfortunately, making a car fly isn't the most feasible option we have," he explains.

"Well, me and Winston will build them then!" Louis blurts out.

Winston looks at him with his mouth hanging open. "Uhh, no. It's alright Louis, we'll just go along with whatever Egon says. It's been working for 20 years," Winston tells him.

Patrick is standing in the corner doing something on his phone as Egon continues to discuss his ideas. "I've had some other pieces of equipment in mind besides the communication device. The most progress I've made has been on this," Egon points to the mysterious device in the corner. "It's the portable-" Egon looks up at Patrick. "Patrick, you're the only one here who can appreciate what I'm talking about, what are you doing in the corner?"

Patrick looks up from his phone, "I'm sorry, Dr. Spengler. We've been so busy with the busts and working on the new equipment over the past few days I haven't been able to get in touch with my brother. Now I'm trying but he won't answer on his cell or at the office. And he usually answers then hangs up right away when he's ignoring me."

"Alright, well, then, just give him another call. And if that doesn't work we'll figure something out after you come see this design," Egon tells him.

"Yeah. Yeah, uh, sure. Just let me try him one more time," Patrick replies as he begins dialing once more.

Richard is still in his chair in the middle of an empty office. His head bobs back and forth as he fights the urge to sleep. Suddenly, a faint ringing of a cell phone can be heard in a distant room. On the second ring, the noise begins to move closer to the office. Richard starts and is alerted by the movement of the sound of the phone. His eyes widen as he looks toward the door and the sound seems to be coming right from it. Then, almost comically, an arm pops into the doorway. In the hand of this arm is a ringing cell phone. Richard breathes a sigh with a bit or relief, and after this Harold comes fully into the doorway. Richard gives him an awkward, almost scared look and Harold steps into the room fully and holds the phone up to Richard's ear.

"Go ahead," Harold Smiles.

"Uh, hello? Patrick! Hey!" Richard almost yells into the phone. "Yes, I'm actually that excited to hear from you. Uhhh, I've been… well I've been…," Richard looks up to Harold for permission, Harold nods. "I've been stuck at the Better Busters' place for the past few days," he finally blurts out. Harold remains completely calm.

"I'll be letting you go soon," he quietly tells Richard.

Richard confusion grows and is apparent in his look at Harold. "Okay. Okay, Patrick. No, don't come, I'll be getting out soon. Okay! Go where? The Ghostbusters' firehouse?" Richard quickly whips his head up and looks nervously at Harold. Harold simply smiles at him, despite the mention of his company's competition. "Al- alright, Patrick, I'll come as soon as I can," he barely finishes before Harold flips the phone closed in his ear.

Back in the firehouse, Patrick hangs up his phone, depressed at the news he just received. "Richard's been at the Better Busters' headquarters this whole time," he says after a short silence.

"He's a Better Buster!?" Louis exclaims.

Winston and Egon glare at Louis, and then stare off in wonder, thinking it could be true. "No. No way, he hates ghostbusting and hates me for talking about it," Patrick explains. A phone starts ringing outside the office. "I don't know why he was there, but he said he was on his way back. He sounded a little spooked though, I hope he's alright."

"What would the Better Busters want with your brother…?" Winston mumbles, half to himself.

"Hmm, well we'll be able to find out when he gets here, I'm sure. Let's get to the new equipment though," Egon starts.

"Hey guys, another call just came in!" Janine yells into the office, before Egon can continue. Louis and Winston both jump up, and head out to the lockers to get ready, as Patrick stands still in the corner. As they are walking out of the room, Louis attempts to skillfully toss up his water bottle and look cool in front of Janine. In his clumsiness, however, the bottle clutters to the ground, and he looks up at Janine, embarrassed. She smiles and blows him a kiss as he gets to his locker.

Egon looks at Patrick , who is still frozen in place. "I'll be here for him when he gets here. Everything will be alright, you can go," He tells Patrick. In late reaction to his offer, Patrick looks up to Egon and nods. He then makes his way out of the office.

"Hey, can I go now, man? I've been sitting here for days and you've been staring at me with that creepy look for far too long," Richard timidly asks his captor. Harold is slowly circling Richard's chair, silent as night the whole time.

He stops when right behind Richard and says into his ear, "You're right. There's no reason to keep you here any longer." He bends lower and Richard's hands are free from the handcuffs. "Of course, it doesn't really matter too much how soon I let you go, it's far too late now. Your friends may have moved up my timetable with that ghost car of theirs, but it seems there is sufficient energy anyway," Harold smiles as he tosses the phone at Richard. Richard is startled when the phone flies at him and flinches in fright when the phone hits him. Harold bends over and is now face to face with Richard, "Plus, I'm a good sport." Harold smiles at Richard, and Richard is greatly confused at this. The sound of a hummer is heard pulling into the garage. "Uh-oh, daddy's home," Harold winks. "Better run along." Richard jumps up out of the chair and runs toward the back of the building.

Peck and some of his team walk into the room. Harold is standing by the entrance with a very fake confused look on his face. "Where is the Dooley, Harold?" Peck asks angrily.

"I'm sorry sir. I was working on the machine, and then all of a sudden, he was gone," Harold answers innocently.

Peck walks over to the handcuffs on the floor, which have mysteriously not been unlocked or opened at all. "How did he escape?" Peck asks himself as he pulls the key out of his pocket and looks at it. Behind his shoulder, Harold is looking on with a devilish smile.

Harold pretends to look over to the signal station, or machine, and says to Peck and his team, "Excuse me, sir, but it looks like a few more places are about to place calls. Better get out there and beat the Ghostbusters to at least one." Peck acknowledges Harold and motions for the team to follow him and head out. Behind Harold, the machine is not alerting for any new calls.

At the firehouse, Dana is sitting at Janine's desk with Janine and Egon. They are just sitting around talking, and Oscar is off somewhere else in the firehouse.

"Peter is still a big part of the team, Dana, you should be proud of him," Janine tells Dana with a comforting tone.

Dana shakes her head, "I know I should be, it's just been such a rough transition for me, because I'm not here with him all the time like you guys are. It makes things so much harder." She turns to Egon, "It would be so much easier if there was a way to communicate with him."

Egon nods, "Point taken. I've made considerable progress with the designs, so we might be able to have him 'talking' soon. I've also been working on another item for the c- for Peter. It's pretty ingenious, actually, it d-" The garage doors open and the taxicab squeals into the building, Egon sighs at being cut off yet again in the middle of describing his latest design.

Ray and Carlos burst out of the car. "Woooo-wee! I need to get some grub in my stomach!" Carlos remarks as Ray walks by with a loaded trap. "Janine, is the food-?"

"Still upstairs on the table? Yeah," Janine answers before the question is finished. Carlos nods and begins to head toward the stairs.

Ray holds up the trap and yells after him, "Hey, Carlos, you want to learn how to put the ghost in the containment system?"

Carlos turns around on the stairs and rubs his stomach, "Trust me, this need to be filled before those," he points to the traps, "need to be emptied." Then he turns and heads back upstairs.

"Yeah, well, I can just teach you that another time I guess," Ray says quietly while heading to the containment system.

Egon hurries behind him, "You know, Ray, that statement may be truer than you might think."

Carlos makes his way up to the top floor to find Oscar pigging out on all the food on the table. Carlos grows very indignant as he watches the boy feast. Oscar looks up and knows there's trouble.

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" He opens his palms and throws his arms up, dropping all the food. He gets up from the table and quickly walks out of the room past Carlos, mumbling apologies the whole time. "Sorry," he says as he walks by Carlos. He points to himself and says, "Growing boy," almost to himself. He walks downstairs.

Ray is walking toward the containment room, followed closely by Egon, "I know we've been a lot busier lately, but I just attributed it to taking business from the Better Busters. I really don't think the total volume has increased that much, Egon."

"It is that. Partially. But, Ray, the rate that we've increased catching them is growing larger than the rate that the Better Busters are not catching them. It's very unsettling," Egon informs Ray as Ray empties the trap into the unit.

They move back toward Egon's office, while Ray asks, "Do you think that we have something bigger on our hands?"

Egon nods in an uncharacteristic enthusiastic way as they enter his office, where they find Oscar fiddling around with some of the equipment. "Sorry!" He responds in a guilty tone as they startle him. "It's just, uh, you know… very… boring in this place," he half-heartedly responds to Ray's intrigued and Egon's knowing looks. "Hey, can you guys just hook the talking thing up to the car so we can leave?" he asks in a youthfully selfish way.

Ray and Egon look at each other, and Ray says, "It's gotta be done right away."

Ray grabs Oscar and ushers him into the garage area while Egon runs and gets the device. On his way out of the office, Egon picks something else up off the desk.

Dana is hanging over the guys as they hook the speaking device up to the taxi cab. Oscar is sitting over by Janine's desk, and Carlos is coming down the stairs. While he walks by Oscar, he gives a dirty look to him. Oscar perks up and wipes his mouth again, making sure no food is left on his face. He then gets up and timidly follows Carlos over to the taxi.

Ray is under the hood connecting everything up, as Egon describes how it works. "Once Ray is finished hooking everything up, this machine, which is essentially a computer, reads its input as 1's and 0's. To Peter, the 1's will be one horn impulse and the 0's will be two. I'm not sure how quickly Peter will be able to adapt to this, but with him simply being an electrical field anyway, I don't think we'll have too much trouble. We just may need to be patient."

Ray pops out from under the hood, "All set! Turn it on when you're ready, Spengy." Egon nods to Ray and places an LED screen on the hood of the car, then flips the switch on. He grabs the other device, which looks like another piece of measuring equipment, out of his pocket and holds it close to the hood.

Oscar gets a confused look on his face and blurts, "What are you measuring the electro-magnetic energy output for?"

Everyone in the room turns their concentration from the car to Oscar. His eyes widen and he shifts his weight uncomfortably, "Uhhh… I mean… what is that in your hand, Dr. Spengler?" He sighs and turns away from everyone, embarrassed, feeling everyone staring at him from behind.

Egon, sitting still a bit curious of what he just heard, answers, "I'm taking readings of the energy that Peter puts out in order to help me develop the other hardware I have in mind." Oscar subtly nods as the LCD screen begins to register text. "Alright, here it comes. The first message:" Egon says somewhat excitedly. "To Dana," he reads, "I'm sorry."

The room becomes uncomfortably silent. Carlos starts shifting his eyes and back-stepping away from the car.

"UUmmm… we'll get moving into the office, let you have a private conversation in here," Ray broke the silence.

As everyone but Dana and Janine begin to leave the garage, a tapping is heard at the front door.

"That must be Patrick's brother," Egon remarks as he heads for the door.

"Patrick's brother?! You found him?!" Ray exclaims excitedly while he swiftly walks to the door to catch up with Egon. Carlos and Oscar stand by the door to Egon's and spy toward the front door, trying to see what happens.

Ray and Egon get to the door and open it up to see a very tired-looking Richard being held on his feet by Julie the vendor girl.

"I saw him wandering by my stand and he said something about you guys. I figured Patrick would be here anyway so it would be the best place to take him," she tells the two men.

"Thank you so much for getting him here, uh…" Ray replies as he and Egon take Richard off her hands.

"Julie. I'm Julie," she smiles. "And he's been mumbling about some machine or something that was wherever he was," she tells them, obviously not well-informed by Richard. The guys take Richard into an office and lay him down. Julie follows them in, along with Oscar and Carlos.

Dana and Janine are out in the garage still, and Dana is communicating with Peter still. The screen on the car reads, "How has Oscar been taking it?"

Dana smiles though her sadness and answers, "You'd think he was a real Venkman, the way he pretends to not care and mocks death all the time. It's something only you would be proud of. I miss you so much Peter."

The screen reads "" and then, "Well then let's see if we can get some you and me time." The driver's door opens while Dana is reading. "Get in," the screen displays. Dana's eyes widen and she smiles a genuine smile for the first time in a while, then gets into the car.

Janine, still sitting where Dana left her, chimes in, "Uh, Peter, I don't think you should be going anywhere while the other vehicle's not here."

The door slams with Dana in the car, and the screen reads, "What will they do? Bust me?" With that the car bursts out of the building.

Ray runs out of the office, yelling after them, "Pete!? Dana?! Dammit!"

Egon calmly follows him into the garage, "It's fine, Ray. It seems like we may have a quiet moment for New York right now anyway. What we need to do is concentrate on where this influx of ghosts is coming from. I think we need to get the other three back here as soon as possible so we can discuss everything that's been happening lately."

Ray turns to him, "Do you think things are really going to be that bad?"

"I just have a bad feeling," Egon nods.

Ray's eyes go wide, "A feeling? Not a thought?" Egon nods again. "Oh shit," Ray replies, "You're right, we have to get a call into them now."

The exterior of a building is shown. The windows are lighting up throughout the house and yelling and proton blasts are heard from inside. The Ecto-1 is parked on the street in front of the building. Pedestrians are walking by, pausing and staring at the building for a moment, then quickly walking away.

Inside, a close up of Louis' face is shown. His mouth is open wide and he looks to be in horror as he is lit by the light of the proton beam. He is screaming over the noise of the proton beam, and can be heard from the outside. Every time he fires, he lets out a piercing yell out of fear of the ghost he's chasing.

The three busters in the building are in three separate rooms on the same floor of the building. The hallway leading to each of the rooms is shown and suddenly Patrick pokes his head out into it, saying, "Louis, keep it down! We aren't trying to wake more of the dead in this place!"

Winston's head pops out of a door further down the hall within a second of Patrick speaking. He looks a Patrick and acknowledges the joke with a disappointed shake of his head. Patrick turns to see him and Winston says, "No. I'm sorry just, no"

Louis stumbles awkwardly into the hallway as Winston receives a call on his radio. "What'd you say?" he nervously asks Patrick, still looking around for the ghost.

"Never mind," Patrick answers him, as the both turn their attention to Winston on the radio. He leaves his room and begins to walk toward Winston's room, with Louis hurrying to catch up and walk with him. Patrick turns back around to see Louis behind him and jumps, "Louis. Come on, what did Winston say in the car about walking behind people with that in your hands?" He points to the proton wand in Louis' hands. "He said uh uh."

Louis reaches around his back and holsters the wand, while a proton beam bursts out of the door to Winston's room, narrowly missing Patrick as he jumps back to avoid it. The two are frozen in place for a moment, and then Winston runs out of the room. He tosses Patrick the radio as he runs by, saying, "It's for you." Winston then grabs Louis and drags him into another room whose wall is cover in fresh slime.

"Hello?" Patrick yells into the radio over the noise. "Anyone there?"

"-atrick? Hey, Ray her-. W- have –our broth-r!" Patrick barely hears come across the radio.

A wave of excitement crosses his face. Patrick pulls the radio to his mouth to answer, and Louis comes out into the hallway, looking like a helpless child.

Patrick starts going to the room that Winston's in, while saying, "That's great! How is he? Is hurt? Can I talk to him?" He and Louis walk cautiously into the room. They both see Winston with the ghost trapped in his proton beam, struggling to break free. Winston is concentrating all his strength to keep the ghost contained, when he sees the two men out of the corner of his eye. Patrick and Louis are momentarily frozen, Patrick still with the radio up to his mouth.

The radio crackles, "He's going to be fine. Just hurry back here as soon as you're done!"

Winston turns his head for a moment and yells, "I guess I'll just get paid for the three of us on this one, then? That's just damn wonderful!"

Patrick snaps back into reality. He quickly analyzes the room, pushes the 'talk' button and says, "Got it. We'll be right back. In his haste, he forgets to let go of the 'talk' button and turns to Louis, telling him, "Louis, get over to the opposite side of the room from Winston." Louis snaps his head to Patrick and attentively listens while Patrick points, then makes his way over to the side of the room. "Now, get your containment beam on that ghost and try to move it over that empty part of the room," Patrick points at the ghost and the table with the radio antenna. "Then I can get a better angle with the trap."

Winston nods over his shoulder. Louis throws his beam into the air, jumping back in the recoil of energy released. He and Winston start carefully moving the ghost into position, while Patrick drops the radio and runs across the room. He pulls the new trap off of his proton pack. It appears to be a cross between a proton wand and a vacuum cleaner hose, with the familiar striping of the old trap. Patrick holds it with both hands, and holds the switch on top with his thumb, like thumb switch on a lighter. The ghost, greatly weakened by the second proton beam, is easily moved into the range of the trap. "Three... Two… One. Now!" Patrick yells as he pulls the trigger on the underside of the trap wand. The front of the trap swirls open and a concentrated beam of bluish-white light engulfs the ghost. Winston turns away and Louis realizes he must do the same. Patrick pulls the thumb switch backwards and the beam reverses directions, sucking the ghost back into the trap.

Still holding the static-filled radio, Ray turns and looks at everyone. "Well, I guess Patrick knows what he's doing," he says incredulously. Ray looks to Richard, and asks, "He ever taken the lead and told people what to do like that?"

Richard, still exhausted and weak, looks up to Ray with a look on his face the says, "You must be joking."

The Better Busters' hummer Is driving down a busy Manhattan street. Inside, Peck and his team all sitting with perplexed looks on their faces. "Why would Dr. Desmond lie about us getting a call?" One of the men in the back asks.

"Shh. I don't know what Harold thinks he doing, but I know that we should have realized it when he sent us beyond the designated zone," Peck says, half to himself. "We must've so desperate, we didn't realize. That damn taxi is killing us!" He picks up the radio in anger. "Harold, I don't know who you think you're dealing with here, but when we get back to HQ, there's going to be hell to pay. Harold? Harold?"

One of the Better Busters chimes in from the back seat, "Sir, the GPS and satellite feeds from headquarters have just been shut down."

Peck begins to breathe nervously, frantically searching for an answer to Harold's madness.

"What the hell is he doing?" another buster asks.

Peck's breathing suddenly stops and a knowing look crosses his face. "Defecting," he says darkly. The rest of his team realize soon after he says this, and he soon says, "Turn the car around. Get us to the Ghostbusters firehouse. Now!"

The garage door opens and the Ecto-1 quickly pulls in. Everyone is sitting in Egon's office, like kids in a classroom. They turn to the door of the office when the sound is heard in the garage. Richard, sitting in the corner with a drink trying to rest, weakly whimpers at what he knows is coming. Patrick soon bursts into the room, with an excited look on his face.

"Oh, thank God!" he exclaims when he sees Richard. "Are you okay? I've been so worried about you I haven't seen you in days!"

"I'm fine. I'm fine!" Richard answers impatiently as he shrugs off Patrick's hug.

A bit discouraged by the lack of enthusiasm shared by his brother, Patrick steps back for a moment. His excitement returns right away though, as he points to his jumpsuit and says, "Richard, check it out. Notice anything different?"

Richard looks at his smiling brother and says, "Woo-hoo, you're a Ghostbuster. I didn't realize that when these people told me you were out on a bust. And, of course! I totally forgot that I was abducted and held captive for three days because you're a Ghostbuster now. I was worried I'd forget. Thanks for the heads up, bro." Patrick's head falls and his shoulders slump.

"I'm sorry, Richard. You're right. I'm just glad you're okay," he tells Richard, and goes to sit at one of the desks.

Richard realizes how mean he was, and says, "Hey, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. That guy was just talking about something, and I think some of these people were listening, that's all." He points to Egon.

Patrick looks up to the front of the room, where Egon is waiting patiently. "Oops, sorry," Patrick says.

"Perfectly alright," Egon reassures him. "Now, as I was discussing with Ray before, this past week has shown tremendous growth in the amount of paranormal activity in the Manhattan area."

This statement is met with blank stares from half the people in the room. Winston and Louis walk in the room, and the looks on their faces soon are just as puzzled.

"He means that there are a lot more ghosts then normally. It means that something has thrown the balance off between the ghost realm and ours," Ray explains.

"Shit," Winston sighs. "That means something big is about to happen, doesn't it?"

Ray nods, "That's what it looks like." Louis' eyes widen and he nervously goes and sits down next to Janine.

"Yes. And it looks like they seem to be concentrated into groups. It's organization that's never before been witnessed. It would require intelligence and a leadership that would make for an extremely difficult resolution to this problem," Egon adds.

"Whoa whoa whoa. What do you mean, 'difficult'?" Carlos asks.

Egon pauses for a moment, then answers, "I think it's very possible that there is no way to defeat this threat."

Ray sighs hard. His shoulders slump in the anticipation of defeat. Then he perks up and asks, "What if we enlisted help from the better busters?"

Richard shakes his head, "Nope, I don't think that would work. They really, really hate you guys." Patrick nods in agreement with his brother. "Plus they're having some internal difficulties at the moment. One of their guys was lying and doing stuff behind that head guy's back. He's the whole reason I got out of there. He's a total nutcase, but at least he let me go."

Winston turns to face him, "He let you go? Just like that?"

Richard answers, "Well, yeah, no, he said something about it being too late for us or me or you or something."

Ray and Egon look at each other in alarm and Egon asks, almost to himself, "Too late for what?"

Ray sits down while Egon is speaking, and while staring at nothing in particular, says, "We need to find out what's going on, and now,"

On the busy streets of New York, a shiny white taxi stands out against the black pavement. Dana is sitting in the passenger seat, enjoying her "date" with Peter.

"You know, this is kind of like our first date," Dana remarks to the car.

The LCD screen on the dashboard reads, "?"

She smiles, looking out the window as they are driving. "Well, one of us is possessed, in some form, the place is a mess, and there's no way you're getting into my pants," she laughs as she looks to the dirty floor of the car.

"That's not the way I remember it. It seemed I was the one preventing any pants situations. And I remember that turning out to be a disaster. So far, no disasters this ti-" the LCD stops printing and the car screeches to a halt.

Dana jumps in surprise, "What? What is it?!" The window on the driver's side of the car begins to go down, revealing a horrific sound outside. It sounds almost as if a volcanic explosion, but somehow different. Dana crawls over to the driver's side, and stares out the window. Down the street, a building was taking on a reddish/orange hue. Suddenly a beam of fiery red light comes out of the middle of the roof. This light begins to gradually expand and Dana notes, "It looks almost like its collapsing from the insid outward. Peter, what is that place?"

"Better Busters' Headquarters," the screen reads.

The car quickly turns around in the middle of the street and begins to swerve through the traffic with its lights blaring. Dana sits back in the seat and sighs, "Nope, just wouldn't be a date without duty calling."

"Okay, the last address that I've estimated is --," Egon reads from his notes and writes on the board.

Carlos, standing next to Egon, circles it on the map and turns back to face Egon, "There ya go."

"You sure everything on there is correct?" Egon asks, looking over the multiple circles on Carlos' map.

Carlos gives him a smart-ass stare and points at himself, "Not only am I the greatest buster that ever lived, I was a damn good cabbie too!"

"I'm sure you were," Richard chimes in sarcastically from the back of the room. "Anyway, I think I just remembered that guy's last name. I caught a glimpse of his nametag when he was spookin' the shit outa me. It was Desmen or Desman or something."

"Desmond!" Patrick yells from his seat. "Professor Desmond of Florida University, I think. Somewhere down south." He breathes excitedly, then slows down when he realizes all eyes in the room are on him. He slouches down in his seat, and says, timidly, "I do a lot of reading."

"Sweet. Well, now that we have his name and life history, we can move along. Any of you guys recognize that name?" Carlos motions to the older men in the room. Louis and Winston shake their Heads. Egon strokes his chin in deep thought, yet is unproductive. Ray sparks a light bulb.

"I remember hearing about him when the better busters first introduced himself themselves," Patrick nods in agreement. "But I remember that he seemed to come out of no where, and apparently he came from Florida."

"Hmm, very interesting," Richard snarks. "But why the hell did he let me go and then vaguely threaten me? How are we forgetting this?''

"That's right, and he did it all behind Prick's back, so I kind of like him, minus the whole threatening thing," Winston chimes in.

"What about the ghosts and the organization of how they are appearing? I thought I had a bad feeling about this when I kept getting calls from those locations on the phone," Janine says. As soon as she finishes her sentence the phone begins ringing in the garage. She gets up and hurries out of the room to her desk.

"Janine's right," Egon says. "There must be a correlation between all these sites that I'm just not seeing." He points to the 5 areas on the map at the front of the room.

"There is," a voice says from the back of the room. Oscar makes his way to the front with a piece of paper in his hand. He stands next to the map and holds up a doodle over the 5 points. "The 5 sites where the ghosts are concentrated form a pentagram once you find a correlation between them."

Egon looks at him, jaw hanging, "You just figured this out?"

"Well, actually, I had it almost right after Mouth over there drew them up here," Oscar smiles at Carlos, who gives an angry look back to him.

Ray looks at Oscar with the hint of a smile. Okay, so I'm a little interested in this stuff," Oscar gives in.

"I'm glad to hear that, Oscar, but we now have something much bigger to worry about," Egon states.

"And what could possibly be worse than what you already warned us about?" Carlos asks.

"The Pentagram, with that single point pointing due south, is the Satanic sign of the fallen one," says Oscar, slowly.

"The Devil?" Louis' eyes widen, and he starts breathing nervously.

"Just spit-balling here…," Richard speaks up. "But if we happen to… not be a Satan worshipper… does that… make me… safer?" He asks slowly as Ray, Egon, and Oscar all shake their heads in unison.

"I think its getting to warm in here for me. Don't you think it's a little warm in here?" he turns and asks Winston, before making his way out of the room. On the way out, Louis stumble over Carlos, whose face has gone white with fright.

"Okay, so, what do we do?" Winston calmly asks.

"What can we do?" Ray looks to Egon. "I mean, this is the spirit of spirits, if we're interpreting this right. I couldn't even tell you if our equipment would affect anything of that magnitude. How would we even classify a something so powerful?"

"Ray, there are plenty of questions we could be asking right now," Egon replies. "But I believe one of the more important questions is, 'How does Desmond fit into all of this?'"

"Yeah," Richard nods.

"Clever diversion," Peck's silhouette utters from the doorway. "But not clever enough, Spengler. Where is he?" Peck swiftly begins to search the room.

"How did he get in here?" Winston softly asks himself.

"Harold! Harold, where are you? Come out here, now!" Peck yells out into the garage.

"Excuse me. Excuse me, what are you doing here?" Ray asks. "Who are you looking for?"

Peck looks to Ray with a confused look on his face. Richard mumbles, "Harold! That's what it was! Harold Desmond!"

"Yes, of course. Harold Arthur Desmond!" Peck exclaims in anger. "Now stop acting like you don't know him and tell me where he is."

Patrick snaps his fingers, "That's what it was!" He scribbles the name next to the map.

"Yes, the backbone of my operation who you assholes stole from me," Peck replies.

"Stole from you?" Winston asks.

"Yes, and where is he?" Peck demands impatiently.

"Stole?" Carlos comes out of his daze. "Yo, man, the only thing we stole from you was your business, Peckerhead. And I'll gladly take responsibility for that. And you know, with all this end of the world talk, you can have it back, too."

"So he's not here?" Peck questions them. "Then what are you doing with a map of our bust sites?"

"YOUR sites? You are the reason for this arrangement?" Egon flips out and points to the map.

Peck smiles with pride, "Yes, it was a great system." The whole building becomes deathly quiet. "What?"

The white Ghostbusters taxi is standing still in a river of cars. Inside, Dana is staring out the windows nervously. Two police cars move by, going in the opposite direction of traffic.

"Where are they going?" Dana asks, already knowing the answer.

"Same place we just were," the screen prints out.

Dana nods. "What's left to go to?" she says to herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone trying to get her attention. She leans over to the window as Peter opens it.

"Hey, are you guys gunna do anything about what's going on back there or what?" the man yells to Dana.

"I'm sorry, I'm not a Ghostbuster, but I'll let them know when I get back there. Try calling them," Dana replies.

"You don't think me and everyone else here has tried? The phone lines are completely tied up, lady," he says back.

Dana sits back down in her seat, facing forward. She looks in the rear-view mirror to see an ominous red haze filling the sky. "Peter, we need to get back to the firehouse, soon!"

The firehouse exterior is seen. A phone on the inside is ringing, and is soon picked up. On the inside of the building, Peck is sitting in Egon's office, across from Ray and Egon, explaining the situation.

"…Then we designated those areas to be spread out and random but also strategically faster for us to get to than for you," he explains.

"Random, huh? Who exactly chose the positioning of those sites?" Ray quickly asks, not bothering to veil its importance.

"I did, of course," Peck revels.

"You chose this pentagram arrangement?" Egon smiles and refers to the map.

"What the hell's a Pentagram?"

Ray and Egon stare at Peck for a moment.

"Harold chose them," Peck gives in.

"Desmond," Ray and Egon look at each other.

Upstairs, the Ghostbusters are spending some time getting to know the Better Busters.

Patrick is sitting next to Julie, holding one of the Better Busters' busting packs. Julie is tossing her hair, batting her eyelashes, trying desperately to get Patrick's attention. He is completely engulfed in the equipment though, and cannot even see her. The two male better busters see her, however, and are blatantly staring at Julie's every move. The female better buster looks at the two men in disgust, then looks away, only to see Carlos looking her up and down. She sighs and looks to the floor.

"So how did you guys bypass the maintainence problems? I feel like I'm always taking our equipment apart to fix it up. These don't look like they've been disassembled at all," Patrick asks with an interested excitement.

"Hm? Oh, I don't know. Someone made them for us," one of the men answers after a few seconds, without looking at Patrick.

Patrick looks up from the pack to the man who answered him, with a disappointed look on his face. Julie lights up and tries to get into Patrick's view, but he's looking right through her. "You mean you guys don't even know the rate of consumption OR combustion in these babies?"

The two men, eyes still glued to Julie, shake their heads.

"You must be the guys who confused my name, Richard, with my brother's very different name, Patrick, aren't you?" Richard says with a smile.

"Yeah, sure," they aren't even listening. Patrick is very let down by their lack of knowledge.

Winston, who's been looking at the guys the whole time, speaks up, "So… you guys pretty much… sheep. Aren't you?" The two men look over to Winston in unison, with blank stares. Oscar smiles and nods his head in silent laughter.

"Ain't nothing wrong with that, baby," Carlos never takes his eyes off the girl. "They work off instinct, Z-man. Just the way I like it."

"Ohh, heh, heh, heh," she smiles. "If I was working off instinct, my friend, you'd be in a lot of pain in the fetal position on the floor," she says sincerely and slaps Carlos on the back. He looks around the room, silenced, then sits back in his chair. Winston and the girl exchange a glance, and he nods in approval to her.

"Maybe Mr. Peck knows something about this stuff," Patrick says as he heads down the stairs.

"Harold came out of no where, but he had exactly what I wanted and knew how to put it all together," Peck explained.

"Exactly what you wanted? You were looking for a way to end the world?" Ray asks.

"No," Peck laughs. "Simply a way to end you. You sent me to prison, it seemed the least I could do to repay you."

Patrick comes into the office, "Excuse me, but Mr. Peck, can you explain a few things about this equipment to me?" He holds the pack up, with a perplexed look on his face.

"No, that stuff was all that damn Harold's idea. I took care of the team and the business, and he worked on all the technical stuff," Peck answers him.

"Oh, alright. It just seems like the containment field created by this beam wouldn't disperse the psychokinetic energy, like ours do," Patrick tells the men.

"What? Let me see that," Egon inquires.

Patrick walks over to Egon and shows him the equipment, continuing with, "This equipment seems to channel and concentrate it. Pretty much the opposite of what I would expect."

"Concentrate it? Like the energy wasn't concentrated enough in those areas already," Ray notes.

"Whatever was done, Harold had good reason for it. I'm sure that without those settings, recycling the ghosts wouldn't have been possible," Peck explains.

"RECYCLE!" Ray screams. "Recycle, what the hell?"

"Yes, we would send the ghosts back to where they came from. What's so wrong with that? We use them again, that way we never run out of business," Peck continues.

"Run out of business?" Egon jumps in. "People die every minute, and you think you need to reuse them to not run out of business. Did Harold convince you of that one?"

Peck weakens, "He was… …very persuasive."

"How did you send the ghosts back?" Patrick questions.

We have a device back at our headquarters that we put the ghosts into. It sent them to another dimension, or something. Very ingenius desi-" he is cut off.

"Let me guess, Harold created it," Ray cuts in. Peck nods. Ray sighs, "If that inter-dimensional gateway becomes two way, and I think it could be well on its way, all that energy passing through and being exchanged could lead to-"

"Hell on earth," Egon states solemnly. "And an educated guess would place that inter-dimensional cross-rip right here," he points to the center of the pentagram on the map.

"You mean my building?!" Peck exclaims. Egon and Ray, both wide-eyed but are only a little surprised at this revelation. Peck looks to the ground in anger, "Who is Harold working for?"

"I think if you take the last two words off that question, it would be a little more accurate," Patrick says from standing next to the map, on which he has circled the first letters of Harold's name: HArold DESmond.

Ray's head falls into his hands. "That's precisely what I was afraid of," Egon comments.

Janine runs into the room, "Egon, I've just gotten more than 100 calls for a disturbance-" she glances at the map. "-right here." She walks over and points to the center of the pentagram. "It's something big."

Suddenly, the garage door bursts open and the white taxi screeches to a halt inside. Dana hops out of the car and runs to the office while the horn beeps incessantly. She runs by Richard, who is sitting at Janine's desk taking her calls.

"Ray, Egon! The Better Busters. Something is happening to their building. Like its being sucked into the ground. You guys have to do something, it looks like every other public service is useless!" She says when she gets to the office.

Everyone runs down from upstairs, alarmed and ready for action. Ray leaves the office and walks over to them. They stare, waiting for him to say something. Ray turns to the taxi, and signals for Peter to stop beeping. He takes a deep breath, "Okay, let's do a little role-play scenario. The world's about to end and you are the only people who can save it. Go!" He tries to grin and lighten the mood, but fails. No one responds to him. "Alright, guys," he says, as Egon, Patrick, Peck, Dana and Janine come out of the office. "It's about to be the longest night of your lives. Get your equipment and get ready for battle."

31


End file.
